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Friday, 22 January 2016

5 Myths About Car Insurance Revealed

As insurance brokers, it is our responsibility to make sure
you know what you’re covered for, and to provide you with the best advice for
your insurance needs. Here is a list of myths we hear all the time from our
clients. Do any of these myth busters surprise you?

The colour of my car
affects my rates

You may have heard that yellow cars have better rates
because they are much more visible than let’s say grey cars or black cars, and
that red cars have a much higher premium because people who drive red cars tend
to race them. This is an absolute fallacy: there is no evidence to support this
in collision data. Insurance companies do not take vehicle colour into
consideration when calculating premium rates.

Men pay more than
women for their insurance

This is for the most part, false. Yes, males under 25 will
pay more than females for their car insurance. This is due to the fact that
males in that age bracket, statistically speaking, get into a lot more
accidents than females in that same age
bracket.This tends to even out by age
25, therefore making auto rates pretty even for both men and women from that
point on.

I’ve never been in an
accident or made a claim so my insurance should go down, right?

Wrong…while having a good driving record without accidents
or convictions ( a speeding ticket) will give you better rates than other
drivers who do have accidents, it does not, however, mean your rates will decrease year after
year. Auto insurance in Alberta is heavily regulated and is subject to general
premium increases depending on the insurance company. For example, in Alberta,
there has been an increase in weather related claims due to conditions such as
hail and flood. You may have noticed this reflected on your insurance
already. Insurance companies must have a
large pool of money ready to pay out catastrophic claims such as what happened
with the floods back in 2013. General increases occur to ensure this pool
remains at the level it needs to be in case a loss of this scale happens again.

New cars are going to
be more expensive to ensure

This can be true, but it’s not always the case. Depending on
the type of coverage you have and the rate group of your vehicle (rate group
meaning how it lands on several rating factors such as likelihood of theft, how
damaged the vehicle is when it is involved in a collision accident, and so on),
your new vehicle could be less than your previous vehicle for insurance. Why is
this? Well, if you were driving say, a vehicle that was notoriously high for
insurance rates such as a Toyota Rav 4, but then you traded in your vehicle for
a new Ford focus, which has a very high safety rating, you could be looking at
saving hundreds of dollars on your insurance.

If my car is stolen,
my auto insurance covers my contents too

No, car insurance only covers the actual vehicles. If an
item is stolen or damaged that was not at one point attached to the vehicle than
you’re out of luck. This is why it’s really important to make sure you know the
type of insurance you need. Any contents you leave behind in your vehicle such
as your phone, laptop, briefcase, wallet, jackets, sports equipment or so on,
would all be covered under your tenant’s policy, homeowner’s policy or condo
policy.

To find out more on how to get contents insurance, contact us today for your free insurance quote.